CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Nets have been searching for defense, toughness, chemistry and an identity. Through it all, they maintained it could be worse.

They were right. It has gotten worse.

Jason Collins, the Nets’ best interior defender, has suffered a recurrence of the leg nerve problem that has plagued him since training camp. How much it will hamper him the rest of the season is not known, but Collins sat out last night against the Bobcats here, is not expected to play tomorrow at Cleveland, and is doubtful for Saturday’s game against the Sixers.

“I had another injection a couple of days ago (Monday) and I’ve just got to take a couple of days to get better,” said Collins, who mentioned surgery as a possibility but said that is the last option for the problem that had forced him to miss four games and limited him in others.

“Same thing. The previous shot gave me about a week-and-a-half of relief until Saturday, when it came back.”

Collins, who this summer underwent knee surgery, was diagnosed with an inflammation of the peroneal nerve. At first, it was thought the leg was weak from the surgery, but despite rest and therapy, Collins still had pain. Finally, doctors at Stanford during the Nets’ western trip determined it was the nerve. Collins received a shot on the trip and played. Then it flared anew Saturday.

“In the first quarter going up for an offensive rebound I came down and all the pain came back. I played the rest of the game with the pain,” Collins said. “I just couldn’t continue out there with that kind of pain.”

Collins received an injection of a different medication, similar to cortisone. Now it’s wait and see. Collins said he expects to miss a week from the time he received the shot.

“It is certainly a concern because it’s recurring,” team president Rod Thorn said. “He’s a very good defender, our best inside defender. We’re going to take the conservative approach and let him rest up with the medication and hope that does it. But it really hurts us not to have him.”

How much? The Nets were 1-3 in the four games Collins had missed previously, surrendering an average of 105.3 points in the three defeats, 103.8 in all four games.

Cliff Robinson started last night for the Nets, who have sought additional size that’s not that easy to find.

“We’re looking every day, but it’s tough to do right now,” Thorn said.

The Nets are hopeful the new medication gets Collins relief, but the specter of this becoming an ongoing problem looms large. The Nets will wait until he is strong enough to play. After the previous injection, Collins played in two days.

“This will probably be something similar. I just definitely have to make sure all the symptoms, all the soreness, all the pain, all the stiffness is out before I start back playing again,” said Collins, who said surgery would force him to sit “a lot longer than I’d like,” probably several months.

Lawrence Frank said, “This doctor said take a week off, get into it, then see whether it’s going to be short-term or long-term. The last time it gave him short-term relief. … They put a different kind of medicine to break up the scar tissue around the nerve. If it does the job, maybe it will. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to go to Plan C.”